Haley Barbour on Civil Rights

Former Republican MS Governor (until 2012)

Proud of MS's highest vote in US for traditional marriage

I am proud that Mississippi cast the highest percentage of its vote of any state in favor of the
Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman;

Source: 2011 Mississippi State of the State Address
, Jan 11, 2011

ADA should allow flexible state & local compliance

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits job discrimination against the handicapped and mandates that public transportation and other facilities be wheelchair-accessible, was intended to help handicapped Americans. But instead it has
caused a blizzard of complaints and lawsuits. The principal beneficiaries? Lawyers.

No one is against creating an environment in which disabled Americans can enjoy useful and independent lives, but the ADA may have important flaws that render it
inappropriate for that task.

One step that would go a long way toward remedying the situation would be to allow ADA issues to be handled by state and local governments. This would allow more flexibility in compliance. A city with few
wheelchair-bound citizens might be able to come up with a creative solution to their problem--perhaps providing door-to-door car service for a fraction of the cost of retrofitting buses with wheelchair lifts.

When did affirmative action turn into special preferences?

When the term "civil rights" is used today, it is often a not-too-subtle code word for "special preference." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was intended to ensure a color-blind society in which only individual character and merit mattered. Affirmative
Action has come to mean just the opposite. It now means a system of quotas, preferences, set-asides, & government harassment. In many ways, policies that now pass under the name of civil rights have made us a more race-conscious society than ever before.

When did "civil rights" turn into "reverse discrimination" and "affirmative action" into "special preferences"? Many would argue that the wrong turn was made shortly after the triumph of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of the
following year. The acts succeeded. But the emphasis shifted from a quest for equality of opportunity and a color-blind country to one of racial balances and equality of results. The idea, we were assured, was to provide remedies for past discrimination.